Genealogy and Kunya

His title as al-Jurayri was because he was mawla of (affiliated with) Banu Jurayr b. 'Ubada. His other title was al-Bakri referring to Bakr b. Wa'il who was the great ancestor of the tribe. Most references have mentioned his Kunya as Abu Sa'id or Abu Sa'd and some references have mentioned his Kunya as Abu Umayma.[1]

Birth

There is no information about his date and place of birth, but since he is known as al-Kufi, he possibly lived most of his life in Kufa and maybe he has been born there.

In the View of the Followers and Imams (a)

Aban lived most of his life with Tabi'un (the Followers) and learn a lot from them, therefore Ibn Hibban regarded him among the most famous followers of the Followers in Kufa, even though al-Najashi quoted from Abu Zur'a that Aban narrated also from Anas b. Malik (d. 93/711-12), the Companion.[2]

Aban was famous for the multitude of his narrations from Imam al-Sadiq (a) and it is said that he narrated about 30,000 hadiths from Imam al-Sadiq (a).[4]

Great Knowledge in Different Sciences

He learned recitation of the Qur'an before 'Asim b. Abi l-Najud, Talha b. Musarrif, and Sulayman al-A'mash and was among the three people who had the opportunity to learn the whole Qur'an before al-A'mash.[5] He was among the greatest reciters of the Qur'an and used to recite the Qur'an in a special way which was known to reciters.[6]Al-Shaykh al-Tusi quoted from Muhammad b. Musa b. Abi Maryam, the author of al-Lu'lu' that Aban was the most famous person of his time in reciting the Qur'an.[7]

In addition to the Qur'an and hadith, Aban was considered a distinguished scholar in fiqh, 'Arabic literature, syntax, and semantics.[8] According to al-Tusi, Imam al-Sadiq (a) once chose him to stand against a challenging expert in 'Arabic literature.[9]

Defending Shi'a

At the time of Aban that due to Muslims' familiarity with culture and teachings of other nations, intellectual and ideological challenges were made in different topics and different schools defended their theological and jurisprudential thoughts according to their own principles, Aban was among those who defended and preached Shi'a based on the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (a). Therefore, he received a great position before Imams (a) of Shi'a and his peers referred to him to listen to his knowledge in hadiths and rulings.

Imam al-Baqir (a) had told Aban, "sit in the mosque of Medina and issue rulings for people! I love that people like you would be seen among Shi'a."[10]

In the View of the Scholars of Rijal

But Sunni scholars of rijal have different views about him. Some scholars such as Ahmad b. Hanbal, Yahya b. Mu'in, Abu Hatam, and al-Nasa'i regarded Aban as authentic.[12] On the other hand Sa'di al-Juzjani considered him za'igh (distracted from truth), madhmum al-madhhab and mujahir.[13]al-Dhahabi defended Aban and answered to wrong accusations about him in details.[14]Ibn 'Uday said that although Aban made ghuluw [exaggeration] about Shi'a, still his narrations are reliable.[15] It is important to note that in the second/eighth century, ghuluw meant "to object to the enemies and opposers of Ali (a)"].[16] Therefore, one needs to distinguish between these people and those who exaggerated about Imams (a).

References of Hadith

His references of hadith, except the mentioned three Imams (a) and Anas b. Malik are as follows:

Works

The books attributed to Aban are not available today. Some of those books are as follows;

Al-Gharib: In this book, Aban explained infrequent words in the Qur'an. To explain those words, he referred to what he heard from 'Arabs. Aban was the first person who wrote about 'ilm gharib al-Qur'an [the unfamiliar words of the Qur'an].[19] This book was the first work in this field and was very important in studying the words and exegesis.[20]

Lexicologists and exegetes of second/eighth century referenced to this book. Abd al-Rahman b. Azudi al-Kufi benefited from other works in this field and wrote a book which contains the common points and differences in them.

Ma'ani l-Qur'an

Kitab al-Qira'at

Al-Gharib fi al-Qur'an; al-Najashi mentioned the name of this book as Gharib al-Qur'an